GM Mastery: NPC Essentials Preview

[PosterBoy]

The first book of the GM Mastery Series, NPC Essentials, is now on sale at RPGNow.com! NPC Essentials is a collection of tips, techniques, and aids designed to help game masters inject detailed NPCs into any role-playing campaign.

Download a preview here:

http://www.gmmastery.com/pdfs/NPC_Essentials_preview.pdf

 

[JoeGKushner]

Is this something that'll hit the print shores at a latter date or ?

 

[PosterBoy]

Is this something that'll hit the print shores at a latter date or ?

There are no confirmed plans to print this book, but we are hoping too.

 

[PosterBoy]

Review

Here's a review of this book from GameWyrd:

http://www.gamewyrd.com/review/113/GM_Mastery:_NPC_Essentials

 

[Krug]

One question that came out? Why a d20 version? Wouldn't a general non-d20 book be better?

 

[JoeGKushner]

No. General books don't sell as well.

I don't know if it's brand loyalty on the part of players of other games, lack of recognition that it's useable in a D&D (i.e. D20) game or what but there have been dozens of very useful books that don't sell out. The City Books, Grimtooth Traps, Lejentia, Carse, Tulan, etc... etc.. etc... (And don't get me started on Aeshiba (fantasy africa back in the day), and the whole line of Fantasy Master generic books.)

People want specific things.

Or at least from my limited persepctive, that's what it looks like.

 

[PosterBoy]

Why d20?

Why d20?

Well, JoeGKushner has a very good point. d20 books just sell beter. While this book is d20 lite, I feel it still warrants the logo. A lot of the content can be used in any rpg, but there are some d20 specific tips and a d20 mini-adventure.

 

[rpghost]

Don't forget to check out the comments left by the people who have already purchased the item. The COMMENTS section on RPGNow.com (and RPGShop.com) are very helpful for fellow gammers to share thier thoughts. We do not edit or remove them if they are bad... so leave whatever you like as long as it's relavent.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_reviews.php?products_id=241

So far this product is getting excellent reviews.

James
RPGNow.com / RPGShop.com

 

[Vigilance]

I have to say, that I liked this book a LOT.

I kept finding myself making notes while I was reading it

And the adventure at the end was fantastic

 

[Psion]

For those who don't know, the author of this book is Johnn Four, proprietor of the weekly "roleplaying tips" newsletter. Many of the points presented therein will seem familiar to you if you are a roleplayingtips subscriber (been one for a long time...), but it is still nice to have all those ideas streamlined and codified, and put in a convenient format. He also has a column in Dragon with some of the same sorts of tips.

As for being d20 -- the Johnn Four would have sold the product to me faster than d20 would have (in fact, I didn't pick it up until I saw who wrote it!), but I imagine that point is less than universal. There's lots of d20 "crap" out there, and this goes doubly for the PDF d20 market (here's hoping you guys can get this out as a print version!)

But the d20 references are light. It is nice for d20 GMs that he speaks in terms of levels and suchnot when describing considerations when designing NPCs, but with the exception of the adventure, the book is really universal in its utility. Any GM who needs some brushing up on their NPC skills could use this book, regardless of system!